Acquackanonk people

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The Acquackanonk were a Lenape group whose territory was on the Passaic River [1] in northern New Jersey. They spoke the same dialect (Unami) and shared the same totem (turtle) as the neighboring Hackensack, Tappan and Rumachenanck (later called the Haverstraw). [2] It may mean a place in a rapid stream where fishing is done with a net. [3] Alternatively, at the lamprey stream from contemporary axkwaakahnung (spellings include Achquakanonk, Acquackanonk) [4] Lastly it may mean where gum blocks were made for pounding corn. [5] Ackquekenon [6] was spelling used by European explorer Jasper Danckaerts in 1679.

Part of the territory which they inhabited came into the possession of the Surveyor General of New Netherland Jacques Cortelyou, some "12,000 morgens at Aquackanonk on the Passaic, purchased by himself and associates of the Indians." [7] A deed for the land (for Hans Didereck and others) is dated March 25, 1676. [1] It was first settled in 1678 by Dutch traders, who in 1693 formed a Dutch Reformed congregation. [8]

Acquackanonk Township was incorporated in 1693. It was located in the northern part of Essex County, New Jersey. In 1837, Passaic County was created, incorporating this township and some portions of both Bergen County and Essex County. When formed, the township included parts of present-day Clifton, Paterson and Passaic.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acquackanonk Township, New Jersey</span> Township in New Jersey, United States

Acquackanonk Township was a township that existed in New Jersey, United States, from 1693 until 1917, first in Essex County and then in Passaic County.

New Barbadoes Township was a township that was formed in 1710 and existed in its largest extent prior to the American Revolutionary War in Bergen County, New Jersey. The Township was created from territories that had been part of Essex County that were transferred by royal decree to Bergen County. After many departures, secessions and deannexations over the centuries, New Barbadoes Township exists presently as Hackensack, which adopted its present name in 1921.

Lodi Township was a township that existed in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, from 1826 to 1935.

Ridgefield Township was a township that existed in Bergen County, New Jersey. The township was created in 1871, when Hackensack Township was trisected to form Palisades Township in the northernmost third, Englewood Township in the central strip and Ridgefield Township encompassing the southernmost portion, stretching from the Hudson River on the east to the Hackensack River, with Hudson County to the south. Much of the area had been during the colonial area known as the English Neighborhood. As described in the 1882 book, History of Bergen and Passaic counties, New Jersey,

Ridgefield is the first township in Bergen County which the traveler enters in passing up the Palisades. His first impressions are much like those of old Hendrick Hudson in speaking of a wider extent of country: "A very good land to fall in with, and a pleasant land to see." The valley of the Hackensack invited early settlers in the seventeenth century, and the valley of the Overpeck Creek, a navigable arm of the Hackensack, also attracted settlers quite as early in this direction. Sloops and schooners can pass up this creek nearly to the northern boundary of the township. Ridgefield is bounded on the north by Englewood, on the east by the Hudson, on the south by Hudson County, and on the west by the Hackensack River. The southern boundary is less than two miles in extent, and the northern less than four, and the length of the township from north to south does not exceed four miles. Bellman's Creek, forming part of the southern boundary, the Hackensack, the Overpeck, the Hudson, with more than a dozen other smaller streams and rivulets, bountifully supply the whole township with water. From the western border of the Palisades the land descends to the Overpeck, forming a most beautiful valley, with the land again rising to a high ridge midway between the Overpeck and the Hackensack. From this long ridge, extending far to the north beyond this township, it took its name of Ridgefield.

The New York, Susquehanna and Western, formerly the Midland Railroad, the Jersey City and Albany Railroad, and the Northern Railway of New Jersey—all running northward through the township— afford ample railroad accommodations. The Susquehanna enters the township at Bellman's Creek, and the Northern at about one hundred feet south of the creek, and at a point north and east of the Susquehanna. The Albany road in this locality is not yet constructed, diverging at present from the track of the Susquehanna between Little Ferry and Bogota stations. It has, however, an independent line projected and now under construction to New York City.

Early Settlements. Ridgefield embraces the earliest settlements in the ancient township of Hackensack, antedating even the organization of that township in 1693, and of the county of Bergen in 1675. There seems to have been no town or village compactly built, like the village of Bergen, but there were settlements both of Dutch and English in and about what was subsequently known as English Neighborhood prior to 1675. The Westervelts, the Zimcrmans, the Bantas, and the Blauvelts, all coming from Holland, settled in the middle of the seventeenth century in that locality. The ancestors of Jacob P. Westervelt, now of Hackensack Village, with himself, were born in English Neighborhood. His father was born there in 1776, and was the son of Christopher Westervelt, who was born there certainly as early as 1690, and he was the son of the original ancestor of this family, who came from Holland and settled on Overpeck Creek, within the present limits of Ridgefield township, probably about 1670.

Bergen Township was a township that existed in the U.S. state of New Jersey, from 1661 to 1862, first as Bergen, New Netherland, then as part Bergen County, and later as part of Hudson County. Several places still bear the name: the township of North Bergen; Bergen Square, Old Bergen Road, Bergen Avenue, Bergen Junction, Bergen Hill and Bergen Arches in Jersey City; Bergen Point in Bayonne; and Bergenline Avenue and Bergen Turnpike in North Hudson.

Bergen Township was a township that existed in Bergen County, New Jersey. The township was created on February 21, 1893, from the southern section of Lodi Township :

Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of Portion to be the State of New Jersey, That all that portion of the township of Lodi, in the county of Bergen, lying within the following boundaries, to wit, beginning at the intersection Boundaries, of the northerly boundary of the township of Boiling Springs, in the county of Bergen, with the middle of the Passaic river; running thence easterly along the northerly boundary of said township of Boiling Springs to the middle of the Hackensack River; thence, northerly along the middle of the Hackensack river to a point opposite the mouth of a creek emptying into said river, commonly known as the Upper Mudabock creek; thence, westerly in a straight line to a point where the northerly line of the public road leading from Moonachie to Wood-Ridge, commonly known as the Mousetown road, intersects the westerly line of the public road commonly known as the Moonachie road; thence, westerly along the northerly line of the Mousetown road to the westerly line of the Riser ditch; thence, northerly along the westerly line of said ditch to the northerly line of lands now or formerly belonging to the estate of Richard Vreeland; thence, westerly along said line of lands to the Polifly road; thence, still westerly in the same course as last described, along the northerly line of lands now or formerly belonging to the estate of Benjamin Cox to a line commonly known as the Polifly line; thence, northerly along said line to the southerly line of the public road leading from said Polifly road to the public road commonly known as the River road; thence westerly along the southerly line of said road leading from the Polifly road to the River road; thence, still westerly in line with the last course of the southerly line of said road to the middle of the Saddle river; thence, downstream through the middle of the Saddle river to the middle of the Passaic thence, down stream through the middle of said to the place of beginning, shall be and hereby is set off from the township Lodi, in the county of Bergen, and made a separate township, to be known by the name of the township of Bergen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Barbadoes Neck</span>

New Barbadoes Neck is the name given in the colonial era for the peninsula in northeastern New Jersey, US between the lower Hackensack and Passaic Rivers, in what is now western Hudson County and southern Bergen County. The neck begins in the south at Kearny Point in the Newark Bay and is characterized by a ridge along the west and part of the New Jersey Meadowlands on the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Achter Kol, New Netherland</span>

Achter Kol was the name given to the region around the Newark Bay and Hackensack River in northeastern New Jersey by the first European settlers to it and was part of the 17th century province of New Netherland, administered by the Dutch West India Company. At the time of their arrival, the area was inhabited by the Hackensack and Raritan groups of Lenape natives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bergen, New Netherland</span> Origin of the New Jersey settlement

Bergen was a part of the 17th century province of New Netherland, in the area in northeastern New Jersey along the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers that would become contemporary Hudson and Bergen Counties. Though it only officially existed as an independent municipality from 1661, with the founding of a village at Bergen Square, Bergen began as a factory at Communipaw circa 1615 and was first settled in 1630 as Pavonia. These early settlements were along the banks of the North River across from New Amsterdam, under whose jurisdiction they fell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacques Cortelyou</span>

Jacques Cortelyou was an influential early citizen of New Amsterdam who was Surveyor General of the early Dutch colony. Cortelyou's main accomplishment was the so-called Cortelyou Survey, the first map of New York City, commonly called the Castello Plan after the location in a Tuscan palace where it was rediscovered centuries later.

Hackensack was the exonym given by the Dutch colonists to a band of the Lenape, or Lenni-Lenape, a Native American tribe. The name is a Dutch derivation of the Lenape word for what is now the region of northeastern New Jersey along the Hudson and Hackensack rivers. While the Lenape people occupied much of the mid-Atlantic area, Europeans referred to small groups of native people by the names associated with the places where they lived.

Communipaw is a neighborhood in Jersey City in Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located west of Liberty State Park and east of Bergen Hill, and the site of one of the earliest European settlements in North America. It gives its name to the historic avenue which runs from its eastern end near Liberty State Park Station through the neighborhoods of Bergen-Lafayette and the West Side that then becomes the Lincoln Highway. Communipaw Junction, or simply The Junction, is an intersection where Communipaw, Summit Avenue, Garfield Avenue, and Grand Street meet, and where the toll house for the Bergen Point Plank Road was situated. Communipaw Cove at Upper New York Bay, is part of the 36-acre (150,000 m2) state nature preserve in the park and one of the few remaining tidal salt marshes in the Hudson River estuary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tappan people</span> Native tribe of the lower Hudson River

The Tappan were a Lenape people who inhabited the region radiating from Hudson Palisades and New York – New Jersey Highlands at the time of European colonialization in the 17th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Hudson, New Jersey</span> Populated place in Hudson County, New Jersey, US

West Hudson is the western part of Hudson County, New Jersey comprising the contiguous municipalities of Kearny, Harrison and East Newark, which lies on the peninsula between the Hackensack River and Passaic River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goffle Hill</span> Mountain range in New Jersey, USA

Goffle Hill, also referred to as Goffle Mountain and historically known as Totoway Mountain and Wagaraw Mountain, is a range of the trap rock Watchung Mountains on the western edge of the Newark Basin in northern New Jersey. The hill straddles part of the border of Bergen County and Passaic County, underlying a mostly suburban setting. While hosting patches of woodlands, perched wetlands, and traprock glades, the hill is largely unprotected from development. Extensive quarrying for trap rock has obliterated large tracts of the hill in North Haledon, and Prospect Park. Conservation efforts seeking to preserve undeveloped land, such as the local Save the Woods initiative (2007–present), are ongoing.

Hendrick Jacobs Falkenberg (c.1640—c.1712), also known as Hendrick Jacobs or Henry Jacobs, was an early American settler along the Delaware River, and was considered to be the foremost language interpreter for the purchase of Indian lands in southern New Jersey. He was a linguist, fluent in the language of the Lenape Native Americans, and in early histories of New Jersey he is noted for his service to both the Indians and the English Quakers, helping them negotiate land transactions. Though he was from Holstein, now a part of Germany, he was closely associated with the Swedes along the Delaware because his wife was a Finn and a member of that community.

References

  1. 1 2 Indian Tribes of Hudson's River; Ruttenber, E.M.; Hope Farm Press, 3rd ed, 2001, ISBN   0-910746-98-2
  2. Wright, Kevin W. "THE INDIGENOUS POPULATION OF BERGEN COUNTY". Bergen County Historical Society. Archived from the original on 2019-01-20. Retrieved 2008-08-13.
  3. Lenape, wanaqueborough.com Archived July 24, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  4. Day Trips® from New Jersey: Getaway Ideas for the Local Traveler
  5. Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. U.S. Government Printing Office. p.  23.
  6. James, B.B. & James, J.F., ed., JOURNAL OF JASPER DANCKAERTS, 1679-1680, New York, 1913, pages 176-7
  7. Register in Alphabetical Order, of the Early Settlers of Kings County, Long Island, Teunis G. Bergen, S.W. Green's Son, New York, 1881
  8. Lucas Litchenberg, De Nieuwe Wereld van Peter Stuyvesant: Nederlandse voetsporen in de Verenigde Staten, ISBN   90-5018-426-X, NUGI 470, Uitgeverij Balans, 1999

40°56′11″N74°01′33″W / 40.9363°N 74.0259°W / 40.9363; -74.0259